The Democratic blue wave in the midterm elections has claimed another prominent member: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
Boebert lost her race to Democrat Eileen Laubacher in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, according to a CNN projection, although Boebert has not yet conceded that she has lost the race. The Congresswoman told TMZ on Tuesday that “the fat lady hasn’t sung yet” in her re-election bid.
President Donald Trump departs the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
According to CNN, Laubacher, a retired rear admiral in the Navy, is leading with 48.8 percent of the vote, compared to Boebert with 47.9 percent, with 98 percent of the vote in. The CNN Decision Desk projected on Tuesday.
If the loss holds, it will end Boebert’s often tumultuous tenure in Congress, during which she emerged as one of the best-known bomb throwers in the GOP caucus during the Trump and Biden eras. Boebert was first elected to Congress and served two terms.
Like much of that cohort, which also included Boebert’s ally-turned-enemy Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Matt Gaetz and Nancy Mace, Boebert will not be part of the next Congress.
A Tumultuous Tenure
Boebert made a lot more news in her six years in Congress than is typical for a backbencher who was never part of leadership.
A former restaurant owner long associated with gun advocacy, Boebert entered Congress by beating a Republican incumbent in a 2020 primary.
Along with Greene, she associated herself for a time with the QAnon conspiracy theory, although she later backed off from such positions; she also voted against the certification of the 2020 election and continued to claim that Trump had really won that election.
In 2022, Boebert gave a speech on the floor of the House calling for a transgender Defense Department official’s salary to be reduced to $1.
Boebert nearly lost her re-election bid in 2022, losing the closest general election race in the country, and was losing in the polls before moving to run in a different Colorado district in 2024, which bought her another term.
Boebert was part of the “Never Kevin” faction that opposed Kevin McCarthy’s election as House Speaker in early 2023 and successfully fought to have him removed from the speakership later that year.
Donald Trump Pointing in Speech. Image Credit: White House.
In 2023, Boebert and Greene reportedly got into a fight in a bathroom off the House floor over McCarthy’s candidacy for speaker, whom Greene supported. Later that year, the two Congresswomen tussled again on the congressional floor over their rival longshot impeachment resolutions against President Joe Biden.
Boebert was also a strong advocate for releasing the Epstein Files. And when Hillary Clinton testified in a closed-door deposition before a House Committee in early 2026, Boebert leaked a photo of the former Secretary of State testifying. After the photo was published online during the hearing, the testimony was temporarily stopped.
From the Capitol to the Theater
Boebert also had something of a colorful personal life.
After she became a grandmother at age 36, Boebert and her husband divorced in 2023, and later that year, Boebert was caught on video engaging in a variety of shenanigans with a man while in the audience at a touring production of Beetlejuice: The Musical in Denver.
Earlier this year, Boebert was hit with an “ethics complaint,” alleging that she had sex with multiple staffers, including both men and women, and had paid a $200,000 hush-money statement to one of them.
Boebert denied everything in the complaint, stating that “I reject these baseless allegations as utterly false and there is no truth to them whatsoever. I have never had a sexual relationship or an inappropriate romantic relationship with any member of my staff—past or present.”
The complaint came from a group that has long opposed Boebert; it didn’t name any staffers on the record and was filed within 60 days of an election, when the House Ethics Committee does not accept complaints.
The leader of the group, American Muckrakers, claimed that the ex-husband of one of the staffers was his source, but CBS News later reported that he denied that, and even produced a polygraph test attesting to it.
It’s unclear whether the Ethics Committee ever took up the complaint, or what will become of it now that Boebert will most likely no longer be in Congress.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has written thousands of articles on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
